This invention relates to cigarette boxes, and particularly to an innerframe inserted into a cigarette box for securely retaining a bundle of cigarettes of smaller than standard size circumference in a standard size cigarette box.
Cigarettes are usually sold in packs containing twenty cigarettes. Typically, the cigarettes are bundled into three rows, two rows containing seven cigarettes and one row containing six cigarettes. The bundle is then wrapped in a sheet of foil or other material. A standard size cigarette has a circumference of approximately 25 millimeters. Accordingly, cigarette packs are generally made to a standard size in order to accommodate a bundle of twenty cigarettes as described.
Cigarettes having circumferences smaller than 25 millimeters have recently increased in popularity. This type of cigarette typically has a circumference of approximately 19.5 millimeters. Because these smaller than standard size cigarettes occupy less space than the same number of standard size cigarettes, packaging of smaller cigarettes must accommodate the decrease in occupied space.
A bundle of twenty smaller than standard size cigarettes could be packaged in a very small cigarette box designed to hold exactly that number of cigarettes in a selected configuration. However, for tax stamping reasons, package manufacturing and aesthetic reasons, it may be desirable to package a bundle of smaller than standard size cigarettes in a standard size box, which is larger than necessary to hold the bundle of cigarettes. The problems associated with the packaging of smaller than standard size cigarettes and the desirability of packaging this type of cigarette in a standard size pack were set forth and more fully discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,482, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, a means is required for securely retaining a bundle of smaller than standard size cigarettes in a standard size pack.